Chinta Chiguru is nothing but a Tender tamarind leaves in english and in tamil, it is known as Pulian - thazhai. Most of them would have a lovely memories of eating these tangy tender leaves during their childhood days. And in Andhra and Telanga state, these leaves are very much popular during summer and widely used in most of the recipes including veg and non - veg. Some 10 years back, one of my neighbour invited me for lunch and served a traditional Andhra thali which also had chinta chiguru dal ( will post later ) in that. I was amazed by the way of these leaves are used in a regular cooking.
Recently I was discussing about my chinta chiguru experience to my friend and in a couple of days, she bought these leaves for me. Really, I am thankful to her for making me so nostalgic :) Coming to today's recipe, I have prepared a tasty and easy variety rice using these leaves. The leaves are finely chopped and added to the thalimpu is further cooked for a couple of minutes and gently mixed up with a cooked rice to give a tasty tangy rice. I have used basmati rice in this recipe which can be substituted with raw or boiled rice too. Spicy potato fry and fryums are the best side dish for this tangy and yummy rice.